OAN Staff James Meyers
2:44 PM – Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Kamala Harris will be skipping the Al Smith Dinner. A presidential candidate has not missed the dinner since 1984.
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The vice president will be missing this year’s Al Smith Dinner, which is considered a major election year event, making her the first presidential candidate to miss the event since failed presidential candidate Walter Mondale in 1984.
Donald Trump’s team announced he will be in attendance for the 79th edition of the Archdiocese of New York’s dinner on October 17th, while Harris’s squad says she will instead campaign in battleground states on the final stretch before the November election.
The event has been known as tradition for both presidential candidates to attend the dinner, with both candidates roasting each other, since Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy appeared in 1960.
“We are disappointed that she will not be with us, as this is an evening of unity and putting aside political differences in support of a good cause of helping women and children in need regardless of race, creed, or background,” he said. “We hope she reconsiders.”
Harris’ team did tell organizers that she would be willing to attend the dinner as President of the United States, if elected.
Established in 1946, the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, brings in millions of dollars each year to help support people in need in New York.
Harris will be the first candidate to decline since Jimmy Carter’s Vice President, Walter Mondale declined in 1984 when they eventually lost to Ronald Reagan, Archdiocese spokesperson Joseph Zwilling said.
Trump was known for his appearance in 2016, where he was booed for calling Hillary Clinton corrupt and said that she hated Catholics.
In 2020, Trump and Biden gave pre-taped video remarks at the first ever virtual Al Smith Dinner as both candidates made pleas to Catholic voters.
Trump criticized Democrats in his speech as being “anti-Catholic” and highlighted his stance on the key Catholic issue of abortion, saying he is a “defender of the sacred right to life.”
The dinner is named after the former Governor of New York, who was the first ever Roman Catholic to ever be nominated by a major party in 1928.
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